Composite materials are increasingly being used by industries for their desirable property characteristics. For example, aircrafts and their components include composite materials due to their lighter weight and improved thermal characteristics when compared to traditional materials. One common example of a composite material is a ceramic matrix composite (CMC). In ceramic matrix composites, a ceramic fiber such as silicon carbide in the form of a cloth or woven fabric is embedded in a ceramic matrix such as silicon carbide.
Inspection of such composite material component is performed to determine whether defects exist and whether the part is serviceable. Examples of such defects include cracks, porosity, delamination and other types of defects which could occur during normal manufacture or engine service. Nondestructive inspection may also be utilized to help determine whether the component may be reworked. For example, nondestructive inspection may include (but is not limited to) visual examination, ultrasonic testing, infrared (IR) testing, eddy current testing, and computed tomography (CT). However, these methods may involve a high level of skill, may be time intensive, and may be cost prohibitive.
Fluorescent or dye penetrant inspection (FPI) may provide a low cost means for nondestructive inspection. However, unlike metal materials, the number of fluorescing locations in CMC material may be high, creating a surface which is difficult to accurately inspect. A developer, as is part of a standard FPI inspection, is applied to the surface of the component to wick and cause the penetrant containing the fluorescent dye, which was retained in the cracks or surface flaws, to be drawn up out of the surface defects by capillary action and to “bleed” through the developer. However, using a developer on CMC components contributes to excessive bleed back and to even more noise in the inspection data. In both cases, due to the noise of visual data, the inspector is challenged to discriminate between defect and nondefect locations. Therefore, present approaches for the nondestructive inspection of ceramic matrix composite components suffer from a variety of drawbacks, limitations, and disadvantages. There is a need for the inventive nondestructive inspection systems and methods of composite material components, such as CMC components, disclosed herein.